Newport, July 09: James Blake capped a bad day for top seeds at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships when he was eliminated by Gregory Carraz on Tuesday.
Blake, the top seed and last year's runner-up, was beaten by Carraz 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4.
"He was going for it," Blake said of Carraz. "He had nothing to lose and played looser. He was the looser one. He definitely had nothing to lose because he was expected to lose."

Defending champion Taylor Dent, the No. 2 seed, withdrew earlier in the day because of a pinched nerve in his right hand. No. 3 Mardy Fish lost to Dusan Vemic, 7-6 (3), 7-5 on Tuesday. Dent was injured while practicing Monday.
"It's very disappointing not to be able to defend my first title," he said. "Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture."



The top-seeded player has never won the title in 26 years of the tournament. "It's particularly frustrating because I'm close to home," said the 23-year-old Blake, , who played collegiate tennis at Harvard.



The fifth seed, Raemon Sluiter, withdrew due to food poisoning. He was trailing his match with Scott Draper 3-6, 2-3. Sixth-seeded Brian Vahaly lost to Ivan Miranda of Peru, 6-7 (6), 3-6.



Fish was also injured when he crashed into the net-pole. He hurt his right knee on the final point of the first-set tiebreaker. After lying on the court for a few minutes, he recovered and finished the match.



"It definitely hurt me," he said. "I couldn't get up for my serve anymore. I just couldn't jump."



Vemic took advantage, mixing in a number of soft drop shots that Fish couldn't get his racket on.



"He never went 100 percent after that," said Vemic, who won his first tour match since 1998. He entered the week ranked 319th in the world.



In other first-round play, Jeff Salzenstein beat George Bastl, 6-1, 6-3; Bob Byran defeated Dustin Brown 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4; Cyril Saulnier ousted Ivo Heuberger, 6-3, 6-1; qualifier Zack Fleishman downed Joachim Johansson, 6-3, 6-4; and Alex Kim edged qualifer Thomas Shimada, 7-5, 6-3.


Bureau Report